we have completed the tour of lameXcape (lame drivers great excape). if you made it out to one of the shows, thank you!!! if you didn't, here are show by show highlights:
*may 18, providence, ri @ safari lounge
the safari lounge is creepy and awesome. we were very excited to play there after checking out the white mice cd release party, and matt had been there to see vic thrill, but nothing could have prepared us for the dude hereby known as Sleeze who, wearing sweatpants up to his nipples and a wifebeater above that, came up to us by the jukebox and said, "the most beautiful girl in the world? judy garland. judy garland in the wizard of oz. i'd marry that girl, she killed three people. she's a murdered..." and later on he hit on the ladies we brought to the show in a most unacceptable way. a great set of rockabilly from the Fury III (myspace.com/thefuryiii) followed by sets from the great excape and lame drivers made an inspiring start to the tour of lameXcape.
*may 19, nyc @ lit lounge
this was an excellent show all around. great bands: the americans (awesome - myspace.com/americans) and old ramsey (awesome - they are just getting started so keep an eye out for them)
---break---
*may 23, nyc @ pianos
we played last of 5. bands from the uk and australia, and nyc's own ezra reich (he is on a commercial, and i'm pretty sure that the dude who told joe he's steve reich's son was lying). thanks to the awesome sound guy for recording our set for free!
*may 24 we took a break to see the minutemen documentary (we jam econo) at the lincoln center and lightning bolt, mouthus and metalux. but before we could do all these things, our car was towed. i thought it had been stolen for a second, with all our gear in it and sleeping bags and cds...that would have been bad. it was still pretty bad. we only missed 1/3 of we jam econo, which was well done and inspiring, but it was a very ominous start to the tour to get the car towed and we no longer had any hopes of jamming econo ourselves.
*may 25 washington dc @ staccato
we followed susan greenbaum, a singer songwriter who played for two hours. people started to leave, except for our friends (thanks!) and a guy in a business suit who sat at the bar clapping along for a little while. the stage is behind glass along the street, so people would stop and stare at us. the sound guy got especially pissed when john put the mic inside of his sax during "congratulations."
*may 26 chapel hill, nc @ the nightlight/skylight exchange
we were very excited for this show in chapel hill. very cool bands play the nightlight. they should find other places to play because ryan who books the nightlight cancelled our show without telling us. the nightlight sublets nights from the skylight exchange, a very cool used book and record store and cafe. we arrived early, and there was a guy on the stage who was moving felt chess pieces around a felt board talking about a famous chess match. "this was a bold move," he was saying, and explained why. we browsed for a while, then ate an awesome dinner at Mama Dip's across the street. along the way, i noticed flyers for three shows that were happening at the nightlight the night before and two nights after our show. we came back at a reasonable load-in time and asked, "where should we put our gear?" and the woman said "uh...in your car." meaning the show had been cancelled. she was very nice and stayed open an hour later to let us play short sets for a couple of people, including a comedian who had just moved to the area from florida.
*may 27 johnson city, tn @ the hideaway
this was an awesome show! it went on for many hours, featuring many bands from all around, including wading girl, the stabones, whores for war, and crazy-d & coven. the hideaway is a bar but was temporarily without a liquor licence. a byob bar. we had been told prior to the show that the hideaway is an awesome place to play but if the kids don't like you, they'll let you know. so we were ready to fight, but it turned out that everyone was friendly. before we could get our gear off the stage after our sets, alleged gangsta rappers crazy-d and coven started their performance. most of the songs included rhyming words with dick. highlight: the song about going into the woods and returning with a tick on his dick. whores for war rock and all had black flag shirts.
*may 28 charleston, sc @ upper deck tavern
thanks to tom and cat for helping to put this together. tom is the number 1 booking guy in charleston as far as i'm concerned. after our sets, eric of commander cool and the claire danes split a set with a dude who calls himself jaymez. we are big fans of eric
*may 29 dc @ molly's basement,
basement shows are the best, this was a great show. unfortunately we arrived late after a long drive and had to play abbreviated sets to elude the police's 11:00 noise curfew. thanks to molly for having a bday and letting us play!
-jason / lame drivers
ps photos from the tour are on the myspace